Telcos Understated Revenue

Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its recent audit report on telecom said that leading private telecom operators understated their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) by Rs 61,064 cr for the period from 2010-11 to 2014-15 (five operators except SSTL for which the period is from 2006-07 to 2014-15). CAG found short payments to the tune of Rs 7,698 cr to the government’s exchequer due to understatement of revenues by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL), RCom and Aircel. The interest due on the short paid revenue share, for the period up to March 2016, was Rs 4,532 cr.